The State agency tasked with delivering affordable housing has sent more than 400 rent review notices to cost-rental tenants in the last six months.
The Land Development Agency (LDA) confirmed rent reviews occur annually on the anniversary of a lease date, with yearly increases determined by the harmonised index of consumer prices (HICP). This index found inflation to be at 2.7 per cent in 2025.
Private sector rent increases have been restricted to 2 per cent per year or the rate of inflation (whichever is lower) under the rent pressure zone regime. Since last Sunday, most new private leases are similarly capped during six-year tenancy terms, but rents can be reset to market rates every six years.
Cost rental in Ireland bases rents on the cost of developing, managing and maintaining homes rather than market rates, with initial rents required to be at least 25 per cent below comparable market rates. The model, whose terms were set by the Affordable Housing Act of 2021, aims to offer a long-term, secure rental option for people.
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The LDA told Eoin Ó Broin, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on housing, that 423 rent review notices have been issued to tenants since rent reviews commenced in September 2025.
Among the schemes to which rent reviews have been applied are Archers Wood in Delgany, Co Wicklow; Parklands and The Quarter, both in Citywest, west Dublin; and Harpur Lane in Leixlip, Co Kildare, the agency said in response to questions from Ó Broin.
As of the end of last year, average monthly rents across mixed-sized dwellings were €1,413 at Archers Wood, €1,450 at Parklands, €1,541 at The Quarter, and €1,490 at Harpur Lane.
Rent reviews are due to take place on the anniversary of tenancies at The Mills, in Castletroy, Limerick, and Shanganagh Castle, Shankill, Dublin 18, the LDA said.
A spokesman said any rent increases, as determined by the HICP index, are “designed to ensure operating costs are covered throughout the life of the home and not just initially at rent setting”.
The LDA hs delivered 2,097 cost-rental homes.
Cost-rental developments, which are also run by other approved housing bodies, tend to attract a significant number of applications from aspirant tenants. More than 1,360 applications were received for 56 cost-rental units at the Oscar Traynor Woods development in Coolock, Dublin, which officially opened to its first residents on Wednesday.
Last January, some 2,100 people applied to live in 145 new cost-rental apartments in Tallaght, south Dublin.
Hopeful tenants must meet strict income criteria. They are required to show the rent they would pay would be no more than 35 per cent of their net income, but their net household income must also be below €66,000 per year if in Dublin and €59,000 if living elsewhere. Applicants cannot be in receipt of social housing supports such as the rent supplement or the housing assistance payment.
Ó Broin said the LDA should not proceed with these rent increases, which will “simply add financial hardship to existing tenants in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and make properties even more unaffordable”.
The Dublin Mid-West TD said many applicants are excluded from cost rental because they earn too much to be eligible for social housing but do not earn enough to only spend 35 per cent of their net income on monthly rent.
